Big Fan (2009)

Directed by: Robert Seigel
Starring: Patton Oswalt

****

Big Fan is one of those movies like my recently reveiwed Humpday, that if you buy into, you'll love. Buying into Humpday was more difficult but was probably a better movie, but its close. It doesn't take nearly the effort to buy into Big Fan but once I did, I was pleasently rewarded with a dark, at times comical, and frighteningly realistic portrayal of what would happen to a sports fan if his favorite player beat him up.

The realistic aspects of this film aide in accepting the bit more far fetched parts. Patton Oswalt plays Paul Aufiero, a die hard New York Giants fan. Like so many football fans can understand, Sunday's are holidays, football is all thats important and the sixteen games are all of the upmost importance. This is about all the excitement Paul has in his life. He lives with his mother, he works in a parking garage, he's consistently pestered by his rich, lawyer brother and brother's surgically enhanced wife to do something with his life and to top it off, the only people who even know he exists outside of this family and one fellow Giants fan friend are Sports Talk Radio show hosts whom he calls with a script of Giants smack talk every night. Oswalt plays this lonely, somewhat stupid and delussional sports fanatic perfectly in what could be one of the most underrated performances of the year and what definitely is one of the best of the year.

There are a lot of little things that an audience needs to buy into in order to accept this film for what it is. The little things are made invisible by Oswalt. The simple idea of seeing his favorite player Quantrell Bishop at a gas station and following him into a strip club before confronting him seems too stupid for even the biggest fan to do. Well, Oswalt not only convinces us that he is stupid, but also more than just the biggest fan. He tries everything to meet Bishop until finally he just approaches him before all hell breaks loose and Paul's literal way of life is threatened... not to mention his actual life.

The larger aspects of this film and the heart of the story are the more difficult parts to buy into. The movie begs the question, if your favorite player hurt you, would he still be your favorite player? Would you still cheer for his team... a team you've cheered for religiously your whole life? And mostly, would you expect your favorite player to be punished appropriately? The answers Paul has to these questions could very well differ from what mine or anyones would but at the same time, this movie and again, Oswalt, does a great job in creating a character and a world in which this character lives that isn't black and white. Paul may not have a good life, but he seems satisfied or at the very least, accepting of his life, especially during football season. I got the impression that with something to look forward to and invest himself in, family and career... the things his mother preaches are most important in life, aren't all that important to him.

Watching this movie, its important to understand that, yes, it is a movie and therefore things can happen for the sake of the drama. Everything unfolds in this film very mythodically and purposefully, thus making it very real. Had Paul been a successfully married, season ticket holding fan, the internal conflicts he's faced with probably wouldn't ring true. Its important that I felt sorry for Paul even though, on the surface, he didn't spend time feeling sorry for himself.

I don't think Big Fan had quite the strength throughout to be a five-star caliber film. There were times when the movie dragged and there were several occasions when I had to deal with the same thing happening over and over. It didn't take me long to understand that his lawyer brother wanted Paul to sue Bishop but they kept reminding me. I also figured out after the third time that Paul calls the radio station every night in response to Philadelphia Phil's trash talk and his mother could have been a little less cliche with her disappointment in Paul. These weren't necessary mistakes in the film, they were perhaps just time fillers. The movie only runs 88 minutes long so there did need to be something. Unfortunately, that something was the one downfall of an otherwise great movie.